Federal Project Grant Award Summary

The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) awarded a Project Grant totaling $453,750 to Massachusetts General Hospital, effective August 1, 2026, through March 31, 2031, under the Biomedical Research and Research Training program (CFDA 93.859). This award funds research to elucidate the regulatory mechanisms governing species-specific developmental rates and develop strategies for manipulating developmental speed in translational applications. The research program leverages an in vitro system utilizing mouse and human pluripotent stem cells differentiated to presomitic mesoderm—a cell type containing the segmentation clock molecular oscillator—to quantify developmental speed differences between species. The investigation focuses on mitochondrial metabolism as a key regulator of developmental rate, with preliminary findings indicating that flux through the electron transport chain, independent of oxidative phosphorylation and ATP production, drives accelerated development in mouse cells compared to human cells.

The deliverables from this research program encompass three main research directions designed to dissect mitochondrial metabolism's role in species-specific developmental speed regulation. Successful outcomes would enable multiple translational applications, including acceleration of developmental rates to expedite production of mature cell types from human induced pluripotent stem cells for cell-based therapies and disease modeling, as well as deceleration strategies to halt tumor growth and slow aging processes. The research will be conducted at the awardee's Boston, Massachusetts location under the Research Management Division of The General Hospital Corporation (doing business as Massachusetts General Hospital), a nonprofit academic medical center and Harvard Medical School teaching hospital.